1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method and apparatus for stretching dough that is used to produce a continuous web of dough, in a process to produce confectionery and bread. Specifically, the apparatus stores data on various producing conditions, including the producing speed, width, and thickness of such a continuous web of dough, in an arithmetic and logical processing unit, so that a mass of dough in a hopper can be stretched into an averaged and continuous web of dough, and which can then be discharged to be supplied at a preset rate to a following production line.
2. Prior Art
FIGS. 4 and 5 show an example of a dough-stretching roller apparatus of the prior art. It includes two pairs of facing pressure-applying rollers 40, 41, which are located in a vertically-spaced apart relation. A dough hopper 2 is located above the rollers 40, and supplies dough 1 into the gaps between the rollers 40 and 41. The dough is stretched and then is fed toward a following production line. By this apparatus dough can be stretched into a web having a uniform thickness. However, when the quantity of dough remaining in the hopper changes or when it is too hard or too soft, the quantity of dough finally discharged from the lower rollers inevitably changes. This results in that the preset quantity of dough cannot always be discharged.
As stated above, because the quantity of dough is not uniformly discharged from the upper roller pair 40, the lower roller pair 41 compresses such a non-uniform quantity. Therefore, when the quantity of dough supplied from the lower roller pair 41 is small, the web of dough tends to be severed as shown at point B in FIG. 5, while when the quantity of dough supplied from the upper roller pair 40 is excessively large, the web of dough tends to accumulate as shown at point C in FIGS. 4 and 5. Thus, neither the width nor the thickness of the web of dough produced is uniform. The desired web of dough cannot be stably produced.